Irs Moves To Relieve Last-minute Filing Stress

Don't tell Laurie Sutton she's filing her tax returns at the last minute.

"This is not last minute," the Hollywood resident said Thursday, jokingly. "I still have two days."

Sutton and most U.S. citizens actually have until midnight Monday to file their tax returns or apply for an automatic extension.

The federal government is giving everyone until April 17 this year to file. That's because April 15, the traditional tax day, falls on Saturday.

Many taxpayers, however, were rushing at the end of the week.

In Palm Beach County, tax preparation and accounting businesses are swamped.

Camille DiLorenzo, office manager of Distinctive Financial Services in Delray Beach, said her boss was at the post office about 4:30 p.m. Thursday filing returns.

It's the same every year, DiLorenzo said.

"Don't ask me why they come in at the last minute and they want it ready the next hour," she said.

Taxpayers in the New England states and in areas of New York state have until Tuesday because April 17 is Patriots' Day, a legal holiday in Massachusetts, where the region's Internal Revenue Service processing center is located.

Not only do taxpayers have two extra days to file, but they're also getting extra services this year.

Sutton browsed through forms at a new drive-up tax service outside the IRS South Florida headquarters in Plantation on Thursday.

It's part of a new, friendlier IRS, the one with centers where volunteers can walk taxpayers through their returns and a user-friendly Web site at www.irs.gov.

Judging by the surprise of Plantation resident Cly Austin on Thursday, those efforts may be paying off.

Austin drove to the curb outside the IRS building, at 7850 SW Sixth Court in Plantation, where a federal employee gave her an extension form.

"They even hand it in through the window," Austin said in disbelief.

Late filers with big questions must take a number inside a waiting room on the first floor of the building.

The majority of people, 54 percent, choose to pay a tax preparation business to file for them. Most businesses are set up to file electronically. A record number of taxpayers -- 30.7 million -- have already filed their returns electronically, according to the IRS. More than 3.8 million of those who filed before April 7 prepared their returns on home computers.

Sutton wasn't alone in not knowing the deadline. Jammar Scott, 21, of Lauderhill, said he had to ask an IRS employee in the parking lot.

Some customers panic. "They get in the office, and they have the return, and they realize they don't have all the information to complete the form," she said.

The branch offices Lauer oversees will be open until 10 p.m. Monday.

"If they're still here, we'll do them until midnight. We won't turn anyone away," she said.

Three million South Florida residents will file returns this year. About one third will do so at the last minute, sometime within the last two weeks, Dobzinski said.

And 250,000 will file for extensions. An extension, which is granted automatically if Form 4868 is filed by midnight Monday, gives a taxpayer until Aug. 15 to file a complete return. Filers still need to include a check covering estimated taxes. If that estimate is less than 90 percent of the taxes, they can expect to pay an additional penalty.

Miramar resident Harold Sookie, 54, waits every year until the deadline to file his taxes for one practical reason: "I owe them."

Sookie said if he faced a penalty for filing at the last minute, he'd file his return earlier.

Corlis Jackson, 45, of Fort Lauderdale, is an early filer.

"Get it over and out of the way. Don't wait until the last minute," Jackson said even though Thursday found her picking up tax return forms for a friend.

"This is the last time," she vowed.

Christy McKerney can be reached at cmckerney@sun-sentinel.com or 954-572-2008.